Palace rejects ‘unverifiable information’ on killings

Name officer, military leadership told By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 03:09pm (Mla time) 06/25/2007

(UPDATE) MANILA, Philippines — Without the identities of those who claim that the killings carried out against the militants are part of the military’s course of action against them, “unverifiable information” like this should not be taken seriously, Malacañang said Monday.

 

At the same time, the government does not adhere to the policy of extrajudicial killings and has resorted to legal remedies against its enemies, Secretary Norberto Gonzales said in a phone interview.

 

“Our policy is through the legal effort so we file cases against those whom we suspect are doing something against the law,” Gonzales said, reacting to an unidentified general’s confirmation of militant killings.

 

He said it was important for the military leadership to identify the general, “otherwise, all that he said would be allegations.”

 

Gonzales said the government was serious in solving the killings, adding that each incident has been damaging the country not only domestically but internationally.

 

Echoing Gonzales’ view, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the Palace would not comment on “unverifiable information.”

 

“We do not wish to comment on speculation as well as on anonymous and therefore unverifiable information,” Bunye told reporters in an interview.

 

“But let me reiterate that we support all measures that will finally bring to an end these extrajudicial killings,” said Bunye.

 

Bunye said one such measure would be the Supreme Court’s broad-based summit next month to discuss reforms the courts could undertake to curb political killings in the country.

 

He said all agencies of government would be enjoined to cooperate with the high tribunal to accelerate the resolution of the cases of killings.

 

The Armed Forces general, the third who had spoken about the killings, had said that these matters had been discussed “openly” in a top-level military conference about two years ago.

 

The officer said he was present when two other generals discussed the military’s course of action in the wake of the communist threat in key areas in Luzon.

 

The Bagong Alyanang Makabayan (Bayan) called on Monday for a congressional inquiry in the wake of the general’s revelations.

 

In a statement, Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes, Jr. said the statements of the anonymous general could be confirmed by looking at the number of activist deaths in areas of jurisdiction by the Northern Luzon and Southern Luzon commands.

 

“If it is true that a command conference of Luzon commanders took place, then the number of deaths will show that the conference indeed adopted the policy of extrajudicial killings. Regions like Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol and even the Cordilleras have the highest number of deaths in the entire country,” Reyes said.

Originally posted at 1:45pm

PNP, religious debate motives behind killings, abductions

By Thea Alberto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 01:07pm (Mla time) 06/25/2007

MANILA, Philippines — A meeting in Camp Crame Monday between officials of protestant churches and the Philippine National Police (PNP) turned into a debate into the motives for the killings and abductions of activists, including religious.

 

Henry Janiola, representative of the Philippine Independent Church, also known as the Aglipayan church, questioned police findings that the killing of their bishop, Alberto Ramento, last year was the offshoot of a robbery.

 

Ramento, who was a noted human rights advocate and a critic of the administration, was found stabbed dead in his convent in Tarlac province last October.

 

Four suspects have since been arrested and charged with homicide and robbery.

 

But Janiola doubted that this was all there was to the killing.

 

“It is not just plain robbery because the convent in Tarlac is dilapidated…who is interested to rob there? His belongings were cheap…we could not believe it was plain robbery,” said Janiola.

 

However, Deputy Director General Avelino Razon said investigators could not find any other motive, based on the evidence gathered.

 

Janiola insisted there was more to the killing of Ramento, saying that, before he was slain, the Aglipayan bishop had received threatening text messages.

 

“Then show your witnesses who can testify the bishop received these messages…without which, we will have to go back to robbery and homicide,” Razon said.

 

Director Geary Barias, chief of Task Force Usig, the special police unit tasked to investigate the killings of activists and journalists, said Ramento’s case should be considered closed since charges have been filed in court.

 

However, even international human rights groups have questioned police findings on the Ramento killing and have included the bishop in their lists of victims of political killings. Local human rights groups place the number of lives lost to extrajudicial killings since 2001 at more than 850.

 

At the meeting, representatives of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines also questioned the arrest of Pastor Berlin Guerrero.

 

Guerrero, who police tagged a member of the communist New People’s Army, was arrested last May in Biñan town, Laguna province for charges of murder and inciting to sedition.

 

Leftist groups first reported him as abducted until police acknowledged arresting him.

 

However, the UCCP representatives said the arrest was illegal because the arresting officers were not armed with any legal documents.

Barias said an investigation was underway to determine if there lapses had been made during the arres

RP firms learn eco-friendly is also cost-efficient

RP firms learn eco-friendly is also cost-efficient
By Veronica Uy
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 01:52pm (Mla time) 06/25/2007

MANILA, Philippines — Business companies in the country are starting to realize that it is more cost-efficient to be ecologically-friendly by taking advantage of a market-based mechanism created by the Kyoto Protocol.

Cement manufacturer Holcim Philippines, for instance, is now planning to use the clean fuel source ipa (rice husks), instead of the dirtier coal, for 15 percent of its power consumption, the firm’s assistant vice president and technical manager, Rosario Chan, told INQUIRER.net Monday.

Doing this would earn the cement manufacturer so-called carbon credits that, according to Douglas Russell, managing director of Natsource LLC, are now priced at between five and €12 per ton per year. Natsource is among the eight United Kingdom companies that are in the country to help local companies develop eco-friendly projects.

Chan said her company’s plan would reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by between 210,000 tons to 450,000 tons a year. In effect, Holcim, whose application is up for validation before the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), can sell from about €1 million to €2.25 million in carbon credits every year.

“We have submitted our project design document to the DENR and the DNV [Det Norske Veritas]),” an independent Norwegian risk management foundation, “for validation. If approved, this will be [the country’s] biggest CDM [Clean Development Mechanism] project so far,” she said.

According to the UK embassy, potential global revenues from carbon credits are estimated at $5 billion and are expected to increase to $40 billion by 2012.

Holcim was among the many Philippine companies that participated in the UK embassy-sponsored business seminar on Monday led by the UK Climate Change Projects Office (CCPO) and the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI). The seminar was participated in by representatives from Natsource, Tradition Financial Services, Trading Emissions PLC, CantorCO2e, Camco International, Ecoenergy, Ecosecurities Group Plc, and DNV.

The CDM, a market-based mechanism developed as part of the Kyoto Protocol, allows developed countries to make up for their greenhouse gas emissions by buying and selling carbon credits.

UK Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Beckingham explained: “The idea behind carbon trading is that putting a price on carbon, so that polluters pay the price of their emissions, is critical.”

Beckingham said the global carbon market, which is still in the development stage in the Philippines, can stimulate private investment in clean technology and energy efficiency.

 

“These markets, worth over €7.6 billion in 2005, can also generate enormous resource transfers to developing countries such as the Philippines through the CDM,” he added.

Various local companies have attended the business seminar “UK Technology and Finance for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)” to learn how to address global warming and take advantage of the demand for “carbon currency.”

Da Fei Huang, of Trading Emissions Plc, said her company has so far invested $7 million in about 50 hog raisers in the Philippines to help them convert hog waste into energy. Right now, hog manure from these farms produces eight megawatts of power and is expected to increase output to 12 megawatts by next year.

She said the “highs” of her experience in this type of projects in the Philippines include the strong sustainability character of the projects, government support, successfully built long-term strategic partnership with local developers, growing awareness and interest from local financial institutions with local developers, participation of non-government organization, and because Filipinos are good communicators.

Huang said the “downs” are the relatively long lead time for host country approval, long lead time for due diligence and data collection, and more stringent requirements for biomass and methane recovery projects due to methodological changes.

“I see confidence in the Philippines continuing in the coming years,” she said.

The Philippine government recently announced that it is stepping up efforts to address climate change and take advantage of the demand for carbon currency.

3rd general breaks silence on murders

Confirms discussion in 2005 on killings of leftist By Christian V. Esguerra
Inquirer
Last updated 00:59am (Mla time) 06/25/2007

MANILA, Philippines — A third general of the Armed Forces has come forward to confirm that killings of political activists were discussed “openly” in a top-level military conference about two years ago.

 

Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, the general said he was present when two other generals discussed the military’s course of action in the midst of the communist threat in key areas in Luzon.

 

One of the two generals, then with some 3,000 soldiers at his disposal, was assigned the topic “extrajudicial killings,” according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer informant.

 

He said the general who handled that topic tackled the idea of killing suspected communist insurgents and sympathizers even in places outside of his jurisdiction.

 

The revelations coincided with statements by Chief Justice Reynato Puno that the Supreme Court planned to call a multisectoral summit next month to discuss what role the judiciary could play in stemming the tide of political killings in the country.

 

Puno said the summit might redefine the concept of “command responsibility” to curb incidents of human rights abuses.

 

The Inquirer source, a commander, said among those present at the conference were at least 100 soldiers, including the support staff of individual brigades and battalions.

 

Never a policy

 

“It’s very abnormal,” the general said in an interview late Friday night, referring to the idea of military-initiated assassinations being openly discussed in a military conference “as if there’s nothing wrong about them.”

 

“Extrajudicial killing has never been a government policy even during the Marcos regime,” the commander said.

 

He said the meeting, which dragged on for about two hours, later prompted another incredulous general to phone then Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Generoso Senga and complain.

 

Senga, who retired in July last year, supposedly promised to talk to one of the two generals who presided over the meeting.

 

Extraordinary meeting

 

Senga also supposedly said no when asked if killings of political activists had become military policy.

 

The Inquirer again tried to contact Senga on Sunday for his comment but his phone just kept ringing. He later sent a text message to the Inquirer saying he was out of the country.

 

Details about this “extraordinary” military conference were first disclosed to the Inquirer by two other generals, who had vowed to help Senator-elect Antonio Trillanes IV investigate political killings under the Arroyo administration.

 

The two generals have promised to provide the former Navy officer with “ammunition” for privilege speeches and committee inquiries by the Senate.

 

Not a solution

 

The third general did not say if he, too, was willing to feed Trillanes information. But he was clearly, though quietly, against what appeared to be a pattern of political killings being carried out by a particular section of the Armed Forces.

 

In the interview, the third general maintained that killing suspected communists would not solve the decades-old insurgency problem.

 

He was particularly not amenable to the premise that legal organizations, like Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) or the party-list group Bayan Muna, were fronting for the communist movement and its armed component.

 

Fire with fire

 

While “fighting fire with fire” could initially work in certain combat situations, he argued that such an approach, when adopted as a policy, would drive the perceived enemies “back to the hills.”

 

The source, for instance, condemned the killing of several retired military officers in Albay province, apparently by communist death squads. He said these officers had nothing to do with the issue of political killings, but were murdered just the same.

 

“The safer premise is to acknowledge the possibility that some of these militant groups might have been infiltrated by (communist insurgents),” he said.

 

“This way, you will approach the problem individually. You won’t think that all Bayan members are communists and, as such, they all deserve to die.”

 

‘Terror with terror’

 

The general noted that left-wing personalities had been previously lured down from the hills and encouraged by the government to join the parliamentary dialogue.

 

“But what’s happening now? We’re gunning them down.”

 

He said the military approach of fighting “terror with terror” was occasionally used in certain parts of Mindanao, where the nature and complexion of the armed struggle was different.

 

But even then, he argued that the strategy led only to wider and even more serious divisions, primarily between the Muslim and Christian populations.

 

During the Luzon military conference, the source said military units were similarly divided on the issue of political killings.

 

On the one hand were those who bought the idea that “a good communist is a dead communist,” he said. On the other were those who sought to pursue the military hierarchy’s pacification campaign, meaning “winning the hearts and minds of civilians.”

 

Within the ranks, those who adopted the latter approach were occasionally jeered as “binabae” (effeminate), according to the source. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño

Medical team hits military harassment in Kalinga

By Alcuin Papa, Desiree Caluza
Northern Luzon Bureau
Last updated 05:27am (Mla time) 06/25/2007

MANILA, Philippines — A militant health group has condemned the harassment of health personnel by members of the military on June 16 and 17 in Kalinga province.

 

In a statement over the weekend, the Health Alliance for Democracy (Head), a nationwide organization of health professionals, health workers and students, said it received a report of health personnel in Kalinga being questioned and harassed by soldiers of the 21st and 77th Infantry Battalions of the Philippine Army while conducting a clinic in Sitio Ubel, Barangay Gawaan, Balbalan town, Kalinga.

 

The four-member health team was led by a doctor and a nurse working for Community Health Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Region (Chestcore), a community-based health program in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

 

They were attending to indigent patients when the harassment happened, Head said.

 

“The continuing intervention of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in medical missions and community clinics directly contravenes the provision of much needed health services to the poor,” said Dr. Gene Alzona Nisperos, Head secretary general.

 

Chilling effect

 

“The harassment sends a chilling effect to the health sector amid the unabated exodus of health workers,” he said.

 

Members of the mission also assailed the military for accusing them of being members of the communist New People’s Army.

 

Dr. Ana Marie Leung, Chestcore executive director, said despite Balbalan Mayor Allan Jesse Mangaoang’s approval of their medical mission, the soldiers questioned the team about their activities, took their pictures and accused them of being communist rebels.

 

Exaggeration

 

Maj. Ferdinand Razalan, spokesperson of the AFP’s Northern Luzon Command based in Tarlac, urged the group to file a complaint so the incident could be investigated.

 

Razalan said Chestcore’s allegations might have been “exaggerated.”

 

He said some soldiers were accused of committing human rights violations in Balbalan in the past and some left-leaning groups could be using these previous incidents to hit at the military.

 

“Leftists will not stop from discrediting the military,” he said.

 

Leung said that on June 16, soldiers surrounded the multipurpose hall at Sitio Ubel where the medical team, which included a local guide and a biologist, were attending to patients.

 

“The soldiers even stayed until lunch to watch the staff eat. While they were eating, the soldiers took their photographs,” Leung said.

 

She said the soldiers, led by a Corporal Raton, insisted on getting the Chestcore staff’s names and questioned them on their presence in the area.

 

Covered nameplates

 

Leung said the soldiers did not identify themselves and covered their nameplates.

 

She said the soldiers later called a community meeting in Sitio Pipi, also in Barangay Gawaan, where they claimed that a group of NPA rebels had held a meeting in Sitio Ubel and that four rebels were still in the area.

 

Chestcore members said the incident last week was not the first time the military had harassed the group.

 

In April 2005, they said soldiers surrounded the Gawaan barangay hall while health workers were attending a seminar.

 

In August 2006, Leung said Mangaoang told her to get the 21st IB’s permission before a Chestcore team could check on the health of Balbalan’s small-scale miners.

UP gets Clark site

Inquirer
Last updated 06:38am (Mla time) 06/25/2007

CLARK SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE — The state-owned Clark Development Corp. has finally turned over 3.28 hectares for the campus of the University of the Philippines Extension Program in San Fernando (UPSF) here.

 

The last Congress had also allotted P50 million for the “university town” the UPSF plans to build at Clark, UP president Emerlinda Roman said in a program held after the groundbreaking rites on Friday.

 

The site is behind the Puregold Duty Free store along C. M. Recto Avenue.

 

The university town will serve as the “intellectual capital for the development of Central Luzon,” said UPSF director Juliet Mallari, who Roman acknowledged led the 12-year campaign for a permanent campus here.

 

Roman said the land grant by the CDC ended the long search for a new site since the UPSF lost its campus to Mt. Pinatubo’s lahar in October 1995. The UPSF moved to various locations at least thrice since it was established in 1979. Since 1998, it has been using a former warehouse at Clark.

 

UPSF offers undergraduate courses in business management, economics and psychology. Its graduate programs are in business and public and educational management. It has more than 800 students this semester. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon

Policeman shot dead in NPA raid on Mindanao outpost

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 10:55am (Mla time) 06/25/2007

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines — A policeman was killed when communist guerrillas raided a government outpost and stole guns in the southern Philippines, police said Monday.

 

A 30-man unit from the New People’s Army (NPA) swooped on the undermanned police station on the outskirts of Dangcagan town on Mindanao Island Sunday, triggering a brief gunbattle.

 

The rebels overpowered the four policemen on duty, raided the armory and carted away several automatic rifles.

 

Police officer Danilo Doble Franca was killed in the shootout. His three colleagues were unharmed.

 

The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a decades-old Maoist rebellion.

(UPDATE 4) Gov’t radio broadcaster slain in Tawi-Tawi

By Nonoy Espina, Thea Alberto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 02:30pm (Mla time) 06/25/2007

JOLO, Philippines — A broadcaster for state-run radio was killed Monday in an attack in the southern Philippines that also left one wounded, according to reports culled by INQUIRER.net.

 

Vincent Sumalpong, a senior reporter of the government-owned Radyo ng Bayan (People’s Radio) in Tawi-Tawi, was attacked at about 8 a.m. by an unidentified number of gunmen in the provincial capital Bongao, according to reports.

 

In a telephone interview, Tawi-Tawi police said a lone gunman had carried out the attack while Vema Antham, a co-worker, who was with Sumalpong when he was killed, claimed that there was more than one.

 

Sumalpong was declared dead on arrival at the Datu Halun Memorial Hospital, said Antham, whom the broadcaster and his nephew, Totong Borja, had picked up at her residence where he was shot.

 

Interviewed by the Philippine Daily Inquirer by phone, Antham said she was unharmed because Sumalpong covered her with his body.

 

But Borja was injured on the left leg, said Antham.

 

“We are not hard-hitting journalists … we have no known enemies,” said Antham.

 

“He used to pick me every morning,” Antham said, adding that she could identify the gunmen if she saw them again.

 

“The shooting was so quick, I think it was over in less than 30 seconds. They quickly fled as we lay on the ground,” Antham said.

 

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, police director, said in a phone interview that Sumalpong was apparently the target.

 

Goltiao confirmed that Sumalpong was not a hard-hitting journalist and the reason for his killing might not be work-related.

 

Goltiao said police were eyeing two other motives but refused to elaborate, pending further investigation.

 

Cecile Abuy, a reporter of RPN-9 in Zamboanga City, said the ambush was “an attack against freedom of expression.”

 

“These two guys are not hard-hitting journalists, they are dedicated peace advocates and have never been involved in any controversy,” Abuy told the Inquirer, parent company of the INQUIRER.net.

 

Abuy said the two have no known enemies, either personal or work-related.

 

John Manalili, deputy director of the Bureau of Broadcast Services, a government agency that runs the radio, urged police and the military to promptly investigate the killing.

 

“We hope they can set the record straight lest some sectors link this to extrajudicial killings,” he said.

 

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s administration has been criticized at home and abroad for a rising number of unsolved killings of left-wing activists, government critics, and journalists.

 

Arroyo, in a recent dialogue with media groups, ordered the designation of a special prosecution team to handle the media killings. She also has promised to eradicate what she called a generations-long cycle of political murders.

 

The ambush against Sumalpong would make him the fourth journalist killed this year, the 53rd since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power in 2001, and the 90th since the restoration of most democratic institutions in 1986, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) chairman Jose Torres Jr. said.

 

At least two journalists were killed earlier this year and 12 murdered in the course of their work last year, the NUJP said.

 

The human rights group Karapatan has reported more than 800 activists killed and another 200 abducted by suspected security forces. Most of the victims are from left-wing groups branded by the military as fronts for a 39-year communist insurgency.

 

Torres condemned the killing of Sumalpong and demanded immediate government action on the case.

 

The killing of journalists “has gone on for too long,” said Torres.

 

“This issue goes beyond the safety and lives of media practitioners.
The greater issue here is whether this government is truly committed to democracy and freedom,” Torres said.

 

“Unless we see concrete action against journalists’ killers and unless
President Arroyo issues the unequivocal order to stop the deliberate targeting of the press, which we have long demanded from her, that commitment will ever be in doubt,” he added.

 

International media watchdog organizations such as Reporters Without Borders and the International Press Institute have labeled the Philippines as the most dangerous place for news professionals next to Iraq.

Palawan plans to break away from Mimaropa

Southern Luzon Bureau
Last updated 06:40am (Mla time) 06/25/2007

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY — Palawan is launching an ambitious bid to break away from Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) region and, by congressional action, become the first separate administrative region in the country designed along the lines of environmental protection.

 

Vice Gov. David Ponce de Leon, who is acting governor, made the announcement on Tuesday during a forum convened by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) as part of the 15th anniversary celebration of the Strategic Environmental Plan Law for Palawan.

 

The plan calls for the passage of a law creating two new provinces out of the island, a scheme that local officials claim will speed up the development of the entire Palawan.

 

In an interview, Ponce de Leon told the Philippine Daily Inquirer the bill being drafted would be sponsored in Congress by Representatives Antonio Alvarez and Abraham Mitra of Palawan’s two districts.

 

The bill, he said, would also convert Puerto Princesa, the capital, into an independent city and form a regional entity to be called the Palawan Environmental Administrative Region (PEAR).

 

“We are fast-tracking this proposal and we will complete the process from our end as soon as we finish consultations with local government units and municipalities,” Ponce de Leon said.

 

Most Palawan mayors are expected to rally behind the push and initiate the clamor on the lower level, according to Agutaya Mayor Zosimo Zabalo.

 

“This is a welcome development. We all have supported the earlier proposal to create a new region. We will conduct the necessary moves in our municipalities,” Zabalo said.

 

He said he would sponsor a resolution at a meeting of the Palawan Municipal Mayors’ League to support the initiative.

 

Board member Gil Acosta, one of the original proponents of a resolution calling for the creation of two new provinces, said he would re-file his resolution at the provincial board “once I get the proper political signal from the barangays and municipalities.”

 

Palawan’s projected royalty shares are expected to boost in the coming years following recent discoveries of oil and natural gas from exploration activities in oil and gas concession blocs around Palawan.

Batangas, Tagaytay execs oppose Taal spa project

By Marlon Ramos
Southern Luzon Bureau
Last updated 01:33pm (Mla time) 06/25/2007

TAGAYTAY CITY, Philippines — In a rare display of unity, outgoing Batangas Governor Armand Sanchez and his political archenemy, Vice Governor Richard Recto, on Monday voiced opposition to the plan of a Korean company to put up a spa near the crater of Taal Volcano in Talisay, Batangas.

 

Tagaytay Mayor Abraham Tolentino also objected to the project.

 

“If Taal Volcano was under my administrative authority, I would have scrapped that project even during its initial phase,” Tolentino told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net. “Any construction there would be disastrous not only for the environment but for the people around the volcano,”

 

Speaking through his provincial administrator, Ronaldo Geron, Sanchez expressed his concern over the effects of the ambitious project of the Korean company Jung Ang Interventure Inc. on small fishermen and farmers residing on the volcano island.

 

Sanchez said he was surprised that the municipality of Talisay has issued permits for the planned construction of a high-end spa and wellness center only meters away from the volcano’s crater, Geron said.

 

Geron said the governor immediately ordered the provincial environment office to investigate how the foreign company was able to get hold of supposed ownership documents for land on the volcano island.

 

Sanchez, he said, also personally instructed provincial environment officer Evelyn Espegoy to find out if the project would violate environmental laws and ordinances of Batangas.

 

“The governor wanted to check if the lands supposedly purchased by the foreign entity have been reclassified from agricultural to commercial to serve its intended use,” Geron said in a mobile phone interview.

 

Recto, on the other hand, lambasted Talisay officials for issuing permits to the Koreans without obtaining the necessary clearances from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board). He called the project highly anomalous and questionable.

“As the law says, the provincial council has the authority to review all the agreements and documents issued by the municipalities regarding the reclassification of the lands and development permits,” Recto said in a separate phone conversation.

 

Recto, who lost his congressional race in the third district of the province, claimed Talisay officials are “notorious” for disregarding the provincial capitol in issuing development permits in their town.

 

Geron supported Recto’s claims, saying officials of Talisay municipal government and the Korean firm did not submit documents to the provincial government for approval of the project.

 

“Unfortunately, we cannot do any review regarding it as we do not have any documents about that planned construction of [the] spa,” Geron said.

 

Recto and Sanchez have been engaged in a word war since 2004 after the former accused the latter of being behind illegal gambling operations in the province and corruption at the capitol.

 

Sanchez has denied the charges.

 

In turn, he has filed murder and frustrated murder against the vice governor, whom he accuses of masterminding the bomb attempt on his life, in which Sanchez’ driver and an aide were killed and the governor seriously injured.

 

Meanwhile, Tagaytay Mayor Tolentino said he would file a formal opposition to the development plans on the volcano island.

 

Tolentino specifically opposed the Korean firm’s idea of constructing an elevator to give tourists a view of the volcano’s crater.

He also noted that the whole island of Taal Volcano is a declared national park.

“We must conserve, not destroy, the beauty of our environment,” he added.

 

The scenic beauty of Taal Volcano as seen from the ridges of Tagaytay is one of the reasons why this small city has become one of the most visited places in the country.